


Millions of Voices

by aimmyarrowshigh



Category: Star Wars (Marvel Comics), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Princess Leia (Comics)
Genre: Alderaanian Genocide, Canon Compliant, Gen, Holidays, Jewish Holidays, Pesach | Passover, Space Judaism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 21:18:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10602432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimmyarrowshigh/pseuds/aimmyarrowshigh
Summary: Leia draws the curtains open just as the night's rain starts to fall in a drumbeat on the porch that surrounds the house, then strikes a match to light the white candles."I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me," she recites. "With this light, which the Force has given, may we remember our place in the balance of the universe."--The Haggadah of Alderaan; or, why was Alderaan different from all other planets?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to get all four parts of this finished by last night (4/10/17), but between surgery and trying to heal in time for SWCO, I didn't. :( The three remaining chapters/sections will end up being posted once I come back. 
> 
> I am Jewish, but Reform, so ymmv if you're very religious. I'm writing this very much with the spirit of my own family's seders in mind and heart, but this also very much is an adaptation of a seder in Space, so the spirituality itself and the historical events being remembered are in-world for Star Wars. 
> 
> I also couldn't resist the wordplay of _ha-Leia-la hazeh_ but again, that's... my family's sense of humor being channeled here, I think...

**001\. The Wise Child**  
Red-corona sunset streams through the window at the lake house on Yavin 4, the gas giant splitting the sky into a more beautiful aurora than the day before and one slightly less beautiful than the one tomorrow. Evaan stirs a pot on the stove while Leia finishes the table setting and starts to dig through last year's drawers to find her candles. She hopes that Ben hasn't used them up for an experiment, or that Han didn't misplace them when he couldn't find a flashlight and wanted a snack in the middle of the night. 

The kitchen door swings open while Leia's still riffling through the cabinet under the water basin. "You're late, Anandra."

"It's me, Tía." Poe Dameron's grubby bare feet appear on the other side of the cabinet door. "It smells good in here."

Leia finds a fresh pack of white candles under a skittermouse trap and a bunch of wingnuts, backs out of the cabinet, and stands. She's barely taller than Poe already, and he's only ten years old. But she thinks he'll end up as short as his papa. Shara was tiny. "Ben and Han aren't home."

"Oh." Poe sounds disappointed, but only for a second before he bounces over to Evaan. "Are _you_ going to fly up to the meteor shower tonight? Dad won't let me do it on my own."

Evaan smiles at Shara Bey's son. Of course he wants to fly straight into a shower of rocks pelting his home planet just for fun. "No, not tonight, Poe. I'd be happy to race you tomorrow."

Poe's mouth twitches. He opens a drawer like the kitchen belongs to him—and technically, Leia supposes, the Damerons do own the property; the Organa-Solos rent—and sticks a spoon into Evaan's pot. "Can I stay for dinner?"

Evaan looks at Leia over her shoulder. "There's enough food. It's up to you."

Poe turns to look at Leia, too, his eyes huge. The spoon's still stuck in his mouth. He's spent a lot of time following Leia around like a duckling whenever she's on Yavin 4. As Ben pulls away to work with Luke and chase after Han and Chewbacca, Leia enjoys Poe's thoughtful, if sometimes too _constant_ , company as a second surrogate son. They both miss Shara.

"You can stay, Poe." Leia smiles across the kitchen as she sets the candles in their silver holder. "But you might not want to tonight, because no one is going to talk about flying at all. It's…" She pauses: how to explain? "It's a holiday tonight for Alderaanians, and since Ben isn't home, it'll be all grown-ups."

Poe pulls his chin up. "That's okay. I can be quiet. Is it like Life Day but in the rain season? Like on…" His brows gather thoughtfully, and then he snaps his fingers, eyes brightening. "On Dandoran! They have Life Day for a whole cycle and they call it the Month of the Force, and they burn Qatameric incense like the Brotherhood of the Beautif—no, _Beaterrific_ Counterrance. Only everyone does it there, and they don't wear the red robes all the time. I think maybe they wear yellow. Do I need to change clothes?"

"Beatific Countenance," Leia corrects him gently. "And it's not Life Day." She smooths back Poe's floppy hair—he hasn't let Kes cut it since the last time Shara did—and smiles at him. "It's the anniversary of the day the Empire destroyed Alderaan, so we're going to remember the dead. We didn't celebrate Life Day on Alderaan, because since we didn't believe in war, Alderaan never had any Jedi temples. Our relationship to the Force was different from a lot of other planets'." She smiles at him. "And our planet didn't have only a rainy season and a sun season, so this is the day we picked for our holiday when we got here."

Poe knows about remembering the dead. He considers this as he passively lets Leia braid his hair back from his face in a tight pair of rows that will hold at least through the night. She used to braid Ben's hair for him every week, until he cut it short off on an excursion with Han and Lando. Behind Leia, the door opens for Anandra and Tace Milon. They leave the door open behind them, just a crack.

"Is Poe joining us?" Anandra asks cheerfully, curving over Leia's shoulder to kiss her cheek. "Santigo says hello from university."

Leia pats Poe's finished hair. "He is. And he's going to set the table."

Poe nods and scampers around the table, setting out bowls and plates and napkins. By the time the sun sets beyond Yavin Prime, the sky outside filling with the high hum of lakepeepers catching hopflies, everyone is seated except for Leia. She draws the curtains open just as the night's rain starts to fall in a drumbeat on the porch that surrounds the house, then strikes a match to light the white candles. 

"I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me," she recites. "With this light, which the Force has given, may we remember our place in the balance of the universe."

Poe's head cocks, his eyebrows drawn, and Leia can _see_ the torrent of questions in his mouth that he's got his lips pursed to hold back until she says it's alright for him to ask. She sets the candles in the window, takes the ritual plate, and fills the empty seat at the head of the table.

There is no toniray, not anymore. Han brought her a bottle of beautiful blue wine from Birren, but it isn't the same. He doesn't understand—Corellians aren't so much wine people, anyway, let alone her husband—but Leia appreciated the gesture and it will do. There's a bottle of blumfruit juice for Poe and for Anandra, since she and Tace are trying treatments again. The glasses around the table are filled and Poe dutifully lifts his when everyone else does.

Evaan speaks this time. "We thank the ever-present Force for the gift of Remembrance Day and—and its ability to bring us together… to commemorate the happiness we had on Alderaan in the days of old." She clears her throat. "While once this festival honored the perseverance of our ancestors in re—in rebuilding a planet of… great beauty…" 

Leia closes her eyes. She can still see it so clearly, all swirls of green and blue and violet, surrounded by stars like a painting. Like a fairytale. It _was_ beautiful; it was so beautiful. 

"We have chosen this day to honor the loss of our mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers," Evaan manages. "And seek our ancestors' spirit of perseverance once again to rebuild." She swallows again, twice, and lifts her glass higher. "With the first glass of t—wine, we thank the Force for keeping us alight in life, sustaining us, and allowing us to reach this season."

They all drink, and then Tace passes around the bowl of warm water to clean their hands. There are no malla petals anymore, not anywhere in the Galaxy, not even the greenhouse where Luke and Shara found the Force tree cutting that has since bloomed in the Dameron's yard, its leaves rustling in the rain just at the edge of gentle light that keeps runyips away from the houses' foundations at night. Tace takes a tangle of crispum leaves from the ritual plate instead and sets them each in one of Han's shotglasses filled with saltwater before passing them around the table.

She _sings_ , of course, when it's her turn to recite. There are only four beings left alive in the whole Galaxy who was an Alderaanian cantor, and Tace is one of them: she will sing as long as she can, and then she'll teach others. Even Poe looks misty-eyed when she's finished, his mouth hanging open when she sits down again to accept a kiss from Anandra. 

He makes a face when he chews the leaves, then eyes the ritual plate with some distrust, the burned bone and the spotted eggshell. "Are we eating just that for dinner? Not the soup?" he whispers to Leia, leaning close so that he can cup his hands around her ear. 

She tugs at his hair where it's already coming loose at the ends. "No, this plate is part of the ceremony, and then we have a nice meal afterwards. These are items to honor the Force and to remember Alderaan, but we don't eat all of them. Some are just to look at."

Poe considers this, quiet while the glasses are all refilled. Before Anandra moves to uncover the basket in the middle of the table, Poe raises his hand like he's in school.

"What can _I_ do to honor the Force?" he asks very seriously when Leia nods at him. She smiles, and on either side of him, Leia and Evaan squeeze his small hands.

His nose twitches like he might cry, and Leia remembers the way that Shara used to hold him on her lap in the sunlight filtering through the leaves of the grand Force tree, rocking him and reading to him from ship manuals, from before Poe could remember. 

Shara's Force tree's leaves rustle again, audible through the door left open.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on Tumblr at [aimmyarrowshigh](http://aimmyarrowshigh.tumblr.com). חַג פֶּסַח שָׂמֵחַ || Chag Pesach Sameach!


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